Mayor Landrieu, City Council Announce 2018 Budget Agreement
Delivers balanced, fiscally responsible
continuation budget that funds top priorities of public safety, job creation, recreation,
streets, housing and quality of life
NEW ORLEANS – Today, the New
Orleans City Council announced an agreement on the City’s 2018 General Fund and
Capital budgets, totaling $646.3 million and $691.4 million respectively Because of State public noticing
requirement, the fully amended 2018 budget will be released on December 14. The budget is completely balanced and continues to invest
in top priorities, including public safety, job creation, recreation, streets,
housing and quality of life, while delivering high quality services for New Orleans
residents.
“Coming into office eight years ago, we
were forced to make some difficult decisions to begin rebuilding our city.
Working closely with the City Council, we have achieved major progress and have
laid a strong foundation for the future and New Orleans has become the nation’s
greatest comeback story,” said Mayor Landrieu. “We
have gone from a budget deficit to a surplus. We now have the highest
credit-rating in New Orleans’ history and a new confidence in doing business
with our city.”
Mayor Landrieu continued, “Stabilizing and better
managing the budget has allowed us to focus resources on top priorities. The
2018 budget will maintain many of the things outlined in the 2017 budget to
continue this city on the path to success and prosperity. We will continue to
focus on your priorities including public safety, job creation, recreation,
streets, housing and quality of life. This Mayor and City Council are committed
to making the first down payment on the Classification and Compensation Plan
for our City employees and to funding an expansion of early education services
for our children. We remain committed to making progress and building on the
fiscal successes we have already made. This is more than a budget. It is a
roadmap to continuing our progress. And because of our hard work and
dedication, the next mayor and city council of New Orleans will take over a
stronger, more prosperous city.”
When the Landrieu administration took
office in May 2010, it inherited a $97 million deficit. Since then, with the
help of the City Council and residents’ input, Mayor Landrieu created
structural reforms that put the City on sound financial footing and has
balanced the budget every year by cutting, reorganizing, investing in citizen’s
priorities and growing.
In July 2017, Mayor Landrieu hosted
Telephone Town Hall meetings as part of the budgeting process. Over 3,400
residents listened, and many provided valuable input that helped to ensure
alignment between citizen priorities and the proposed budget.
Councilmember-at-Large Stacy
Head said,
"I'm very proud of this, my last budget as Chair of the Council's Budget
Committee. With savings realized from structural budget improvements made by
this council and administration, we've prioritized basic city services, such as
catch basin cleaning, as well as funded salary increases for our police
officers and many of our city employees. We have also invested in important
programs that will ensure that New Orleans' future is bright. This budget
increases access to high quality early childhood education by taking advantage
of new state matching fund. The benefits of that investment will be felt for
years to come."
Councilmember-at-Large Jason
Rogers Williams said, “This budget reflects a more holistic approach to a
healthier and safer city for all New Orleanians, including allocations not only
for a City Council Public Safety Analyst but also to early childhood education.
These new budget priorities mirror each other showing that public safety does
not just mean policing but must take into account public health and education.
We are clearly trying to refocus on root causes not just resulting symptoms.”
District A Councilmember Susan
G. Guidry said,
" The
2018 budget reflects eight years of work by the Mayor and Council to greatly
reduce long-term debt, to cut waste and to improve the city's fiscal
health. I am proud of the work that we have done, which is reflected in
the best credit rating the city has ever had, a positive general fund balance
and a dedicated rainy day fund. This healthy fiscal position allows the
Council to add to the proposed budget increased funding for catch basin
cleaning and repair, increases in salaries for city employees and sheriff's
deputies, and first-time funding of a pilot for early childhood education and
of youth intervention services connected with the juvenile justice reform
measure recently passed by our Council."
District B Councilmember LaToya
Cantrell said,
" I am encouraged by this new investment in early childhood
education and by the raises we are making for some of our hard working City
Hall employees. I hope that we can build on this momentum in order to provide
raises to all of our to all of our City Hall classified staff in the near
future."
District C Councilmember Nadine
M. Ramsey said, " We heard from the public that they wanted to see more investment
in human capital, youth and job training, which has been the priority since I
took office. This budget reflects continued steps toward shifting
priorities to focus on people. I am particularly proud of the commitment
to programs like STEM Nola that will provide job training for our youth in the
science and technology fields of the future."
District D Councilmember Jared
C. Brossett said, "Today, my colleagues and I approved a balanced 2018
budget that is focused on implementing the priorities that are most important
to the citizens of New Orleans. Our focus continues to be on critical services,
public safety, infrastructure, quality of life improvements, and living wages
for government employees. Additionally, this Council is making a significant
investment in the children of New Orleans as we are allocate funds for an early
childhood education pilot program. Though not perfect, the 2018 budget will
adequately fund initiatives that will continue to move our city in the right
direction."
District E Councilmember James
Austin Gray II said, "Quality-of-life issues were first and foremost on my must-have
list this year. Among the items I asked for in this year’s budget were
improvements along major corridors in street repair, drainage, lights and
maintenance of overgrown lots where the public is inconvenienced. We must do
more to make District E a better place to live, work and raise your family."
First Deputy Mayor and Chief
Administrative Officer Jeff Hebert said, " I am proud of our budget team in the Chief
Administrative Office for consistently preparing balanced budgets for the last
8 years of this administration and moving this city into fiscal stability.”
COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SAFETY
- Increase funding for NOPD to
hire another 150 police officers and implement targeted pay increases to
improve retention efforts
- Increase civilian social
workers and civilian investigators for sexual assault cases
- $6.5 million will be
allocated to fund the consent decree between the City and the U.S. Department
of Justice to completely transform NOPD
- Continue funding for the
NOLA FOR LIFE Murder Reduction Strategy
- Allocate funds to support
increased security at public facilities and the newly established command
center in the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
- Increase funding to support
the Information Technology & Innovation department, which funds enterprise
systems stabilization and disaster recovery preparedness
- Increase funding for the New
Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) and the NOFD pension settlement
- Increase funding for
Emergency Medical Services to provide additional, critical paramedics and EMTs
and to improve response time and address opioid epidemic
- Additional funds in the
Equipment Maintenance Division of the Chief Administrative Office to support
critical staffing and maintenance needs to reduce down-time of public safety
vehicles
- Increase funding for the New
Orleans Mosquito, Termite & Rodent Control Board to support additional
staff and materials to combat the Zika virus
- Allocate funding for
continued stability of the Youth Study Center and to support critical staff and
operational needs
INVESTING IN OUR RESIDENTS’
PRIORITIES
Jobs
- Prioritize money for
enforcing minimum wage for City employees and contractors, and our local hiring
policy
- Increase funding to support
workforce development internships for high school students through YouthForce
NOLA
- Allocate funding for the
Office of Supplier Diversity to meet and exceed Disadvantaged Business
Enterprises (DBE) goals
- Continue funding the NOLA
Business Alliance to attract jobs and retail
Streets and Infrastructure
- $421 million investment in
Capital Budget for street, drainage, water and sewer construction alone
Quality of Life
- Fund support of sustainable
communities that integrate quality housing, transportation, schools, commercial
development, energy efficiency, parks and green space, flood protection, and
cultural assets
- Fund the Department of
Safety & Permits to support a state-mandated coastal zone manager position
and two critical storm water inspectors
- Fund the replacement of
Office of Resilience and Sustainability grant funds that support the core
budget of the office
- Support the Department of
Property Management in operating costs of the newly transferred former Veterans
Affairs Hospital complex
- Increase funding in the
Office of Community Development to support the operations of the low-barrier
homeless shelter
- Increase funding for the
Department of Public Works to support additional pedestrian safety
interventions
- Increase funding for New
Orleans Recreation Development (NORD) Commission to support the operations of
additional facilities opening in 2018
- Allocate funding for the
City’s Equity Office so that City departments and leaders have the resources
they need to ensure an equitable government
- $20 million for new and
rollover investments in the City’s affordable housing initiatives
- Additional $5 million for
City judgments and settlements
-
BUILDING FOR OUR FUTURE
- Finalized a historic $2
billion settlement with FEMA for repairs to roads and sewerage and drainage
infrastructure. Our 2018-2022 capital budget is set at over $1.9 billion and
includes hundreds of street projects
- Fund street repairs for next
few years through a bond measure residents passed that won’t raise taxes but
will free up nearly $100 million for these repairs
- $27 million will be set aside for cases
of emergency in the Rainy Day Savings Fund.
- Allocate funding to
institutionalize our workforce training, small business growth and black male
unemployment reduction initiatives at NOLA Business Alliance
As part of a budget compromise, the
final adopted budget will recognize:
- $750,000 for the New Orleans Early
Education Network to improve access for early childhood education;
- $3.1 million to fund additional catch
basin cleaning crews and equipment;
- $150,000 for the City Council to conduct
a search for and hire a public safety consultant; $150,000 to expand youth
intervention services at the Youth Opportunity Center and at Covenant House,
which will provide funding for the implementation of the Juvenile Warning
Notice System;
- $132,000 for STEM NOLA to provide
computer science certification training;
- $7.8 million in public safety vehicle
fleet improvements. This includes the purchase of an additional 100 police
cars, which was announced earlier this year as a part of the 2017 Citywide
Public Safety Plan, and 13 new ambulances;
- $9.2 million to fund New Orleans Police
Department (NOPD) pay raises outlined in the NOPD Pay Plan. In October, the
City Council voted to approve the new pay plan that will offer more competitive
salaries and greater opportunities for advancement across the board;
- $2 million to address backlog of unpaid
judgements. In September, City Council established a Judgment Fund that
dedicates money annually to pay legal judgments rendered;
- $3 million for the Orleans Parish
Sheriff’s Office as part of a consent judgement for pay raises and the creation
of a compliance bureau;
- $1.5 million in equity raises for
employees of the City of New Orleans. This will fund
10 percent pay raises for City employees with starting salaries of $24,000 or
less annually. This roll out represents the first phase of the Comprehensive
Classification and Compensation Plan, the result of the Comprehensive
Classification and Compensation the Civil Service Commission and the City
conducted earlier this year;
- These budget additions are made possible
by the $30 million in long-term lease proceeds from the former World Trade
Center parking garage will be recognized in the 2018 budget. $9.2 million of
this will be reserved for the following year’s budget for 2019 NOPD pay raises.
Mayor Landrieu said, “Over 2,761 days ago,
I was elected to turn the City around by putting our fiscal house back in order
and getting our recovery back on track. This budget delivers on that promise,
helps us to build on the progress we’ve made, and lays a stronger foundation
for the future. As we look to the city’s 300th anniversary, we have
worked hard to prepare a budget that seeks to help secure our success for the
next 300 years.”
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